Exam question 1 · Conservation: how people help animals come back

Identify the principal cause of the decline of the bald eagle in the United States during the mid-twentieth century.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, bald eagle · What happens: identify, cause, decline · To what, where: principal cause, decline

This is exam question 1 of lesson 78 «Conservation: how people help animals come back» of the biology course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 cause	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 cause	amod
4	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	of	of	ADP	_	7 decline	case
6	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 decline	det
7	decline	decline	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cause	nmod
8	of	of	ADP	_	11 eagle	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 eagle	det
10	bald	bald	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 eagle	amod
11	eagle	eagle	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 decline	nmod
12	in	in	ADP	_	15 States	case
13	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	15 States	det
14	United	United	ADJ	Degree=Pos	15 States	amod
15	States	State	PROPN	Number=Plur	11 eagle	nmod
16	during	during	ADP	_	19 century	case
17	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	19 century	det
18	mid-twentieth	mid-twentieth	ADJ	Degree=Pos	19 century	amod
19	century	century	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obl
20	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	when	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal cause of the decline of the bald eagle in the United States	century	vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent cause=Theme
2	cause			the decline of the bald eagle in the United States		nom cause «event transitive»: of=patient
3	decline		the bald eagle in the United States			nom decline «process intransitive»: of=agent

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

A succession of exceptionally severe winters

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	A	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	2 succession	det
2	succession	succession	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	6 winters	case
4	exceptionally	exceptionally	ADV	_	5 severe	advmod
5	severe	severe	ADJ	Degree=Pos	6 winters	amod
6	winters	winter	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 succession	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Option 2

The introduction of rats to their nesting sites

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 introduction	det
2	introduction	introduction	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 rats	case
4	rats	rat	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 introduction	nmod
5	to	to	ADP	_	8 sites	case
6	their	their	PRON	Case=Gen Number=Plur Person=3 Poss=Yes PronType=Prs	8 sites	nmod:poss
7	nesting	nesting	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 sites	compound
8	sites	site	NOUN	Number=Plur	2 introduction	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	introduce			rats				to rats's nesting sites	nom introduction «act transitive»: of=patient to=obl

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

The accumulation of DDT, which caused the thinning of eggshells

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	2 accumulation	det
2	accumulation	accumulation	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 caused	nsubj
3	of	of	ADP	_	4 DDT	case
4	DDT	ddt	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 accumulation	nmod
5	,	,	PUNCT	_	7 caused	punct
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	7 caused	nsubj
7	caused	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Past VerbForm=Fin	root	root
8	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 thinning	det
9	thinning	thinning	NOUN	Number=Sing	7 caused	obj
10	of	of	ADP	_	11 eggshells	case
11	eggshells	eggshell	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 thinning	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	roles by
1	cause	past	the accumulation of DDT	the thinning of eggshells	vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition thinning=Patient
2	accumulate			DDT	nom accumulation «process transitive»: of=patient
3	thin			eggshells	nom thinning «act transitive»: of=patient

Option 4

Competition for food with the California condor over the western mountains

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Competition	competition	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
2	for	for	ADP	_	3 food	case
3	food	food	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Competition	nmod
4	with	with	ADP	_	7 condor	case
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	7 condor	det
6	California	California	PROPN	Number=Sing	7 condor	compound
7	condor	condor	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Competition	nmod
8	over	over	ADP	_	11 mountains	case
9	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	11 mountains	det
10	western	western	ADJ	Degree=Pos	11 mountains	amod
11	mountains	mountain	NOUN	Number=Plur	1 Competition	nmod

The frames reader finds no event or fact in this sentence.

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/biology/78-conservation-animals-come-back/e1/